The Show Must Go On for SCC

The Society of Cosmetic Chemists’ headquarters were flooded by Superstorm Sandy, but SCC executive director Bill Cowen and his staff rose to the occasion and the Annual Meeting took place without a hitch.

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Sandy be damned! Despite getting overrun by Superstorm Sandy at its offices in lower Manhattan, The Society of Cosmetic Chemists (SCC) Annual Meeting went on as scheduled, with a full slate of scientific papers, a well-attended poster session featuring 80 posters and an array of awards, highlighted by Karl Lintner winning the Maison G. deNavarre Medal Award—the Society’s highest honor. The meeting was held Dec. 6 and 7 in New York City.

With his wife Debbie at his side, Joe Pavlichko accepts the SCC Merit Award from SCC president Joseph Dallal.

In his opening remarks, SCC president Joseph Dallal reminded attendees that the US SCC is the largest society in the world, and getting bigger, as 200 new members were added in 2012. Throughout the two-day event, Dallal urged SCC members to extend their hands, make new contacts and mentor new members to the industry and the Society. He also reminded attendees that the SCC will host the 2016 IFSCC Congress, which will be held Oct. 13-16, at Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL.

Cosmetic Dermatology
The opening session, devoted to cosmetic dermatology, was moderated by Kimberly-Clark’s Martha Tate, who also served as chairman of the Committee on Scientific Affairs. Elizabeth Grice, University of Pennsylvania, explained how her team created a topographical map of the skin’s microdome.

“The microbiome is an information-rich readout of the wound environment,” she explained.

In non-healing diabetic foot ulcers, depth of wound is highly correlated with the relative abundance of bacteria. Grice said study of the microdome is useful to detect microbial signatures that can then be used as biomarkers to drive clinical treatment.

Skin repair was the subject of a paper delivered by Cristina Carreño of Lipotec. Through a combinatorial chemistry approach, her team discovered a set of biopeptides that are able to stimulate the DNA repair pathways by activating the transcription of the Foxo3a targets. Specifically, peptide 26 is a novel active with clinical efficacy for the maintenance of genome integrity and the delay of senescence. She maintained that these peptides can serve as new cosmetic actives to minimize DNA damage.

David Boudier of Silab told the audience that aged keratinocytes have a decreasing ability to synthesize vitamin D receptors. In fact, 70% of adults have a vitamin D deficiency, according to Boudier. To improve synthesis and ultimately boost vitamin D levels, Silab has developed a natural active (INCI: Water (and) Cichorium intybus (chicory) root extract). In vivo tests demonstrate the material boosted vitamin D levels by 32%. The active is rich in oligofructosans and Boudier suggested it has applications in skin care products that promise to improve skin’s barrier function.

Chemistry and Physics
The right chemistry can lead to high-performance skin care products. But Frontiers of Science Award Lecturer Richard Rox Anderson of the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Harvard Medical School, explained that physics, too, play a vital role in product development. For example, aging leads to retardation of elastic recoil in skin, which results in wrinkles. To boost elastin levels, Anderson explained how fractional lasers produce minute pinholes in skin, which quickly heals itself.

“We killed the epidermis and it healed itself in six hours,” Anderson recalled. “(The process) kicked on different genes and they started making elastin.”

Consumers can already purchase lasers for at-home for less than $1,000 and Anderson predicted that soon radiofrequency and ultrasound devices will be deployed in the war on aging. For younger patients and consumers, Anderson explained how lasers can be used to treat acne.

While patients and cosmetic consumers are waiting for the lasers to work their magic, Anderson said they should applying cosmetics that contain an anti-reflectance coating to hide wrinkles and other forms of skin damage. He also applauded the industry work, noting:

“There is no clear line between cosmetic and medical concerns in dermatology.”

Lintner Honored with deNavarre Medal Award
To open the Theresa Cesario Awards Luncheon, the Society presented Karl Lintner, president of Kal’idees and associate professor at the University of Versailles, with the Maison G. deNavarre Medal Award—the Society’s highest honor—in recognition for his significant contributions to the understanding of actives on skin physiology.

In presenting the award, Denise Gabriele, VP-marketing, Sederma, noted that Lintner arrived at Sederma just when the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy scare was taking hold of the cosmetic industry.
Lintner’s research helped create the use of peptides in cosmetics and his efforts made peptides accepted around the world, according to Gabriele.

“He made Matrixyl a household word,” said Gabriele.

And while Gabriele said the award came as no surprise to her, Lintner said he was shocked when Bill Cowen called to notify him.

“I fell off my chair,” he recalled, before adding, “This is a wonderful industry that helps people.”

In accepting the award, Lintner thanked his colleagues at Croda and Sederma, as well as his wife, Dominique.

The awards continued during the Dec. 7 luncheon as Joseph P. Pavlichko, Croda, received the Society of Cosmetic Chemists’ Merit Award for his service and leadership to the Society, especially for serving as its 54th president, and as a member of COSA and several other committees during his 34 years in SCC.

Howard Epstein, EMD Chemicals, was honored for his service as editor of the Journal of Cosmetic Science and Dallal, of Ashland Specialty Ingredients, received a certificate of appreciation for serving as the 66th president of the SCC.

Thoughts on China
China is set to become the world’s largest economy as early as 2020, according to some experts. But it already plays an important role in the global beauty industry. With that in mind, Michael Fevola, Johnson & Johnson, moderated a Dec. 6 afternoon session on the regulatory situation in China. Ken Marenus, Estée Lauder, explained that China’s already complex regulatory atmosphere is set to get even more difficult for companies importing finished products into China. He expects a continued escalation of cosmetic regulation in China, which will require, in his words, “more data, more data, more data.”

That’s due, in part, because product safety falls, not on the manufacturer, but on government. But while Chinese regulations will challenge widely-used materials, such as the safety of colorants, Marenus did note that it could all lead to more globally-harmonized regulations.

“This is the golden chalice,” he explained. “We’re getting it, but it’s not all that we hoped for.”

The complex nature of Chinese cosmetic regulations was detailed by BASF’s Victor Mencarelli, who noted that cosmetic ingredients must comply with two different regulatory bodies, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, which oversees chemicals and the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), which oversees cosmetics.

He warned that China’s Chemical Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances (IECSC) closely resembles Europe’s Registration, Evaluation Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), but is even more unwieldy because companies must report ingredients that are used at levels below one metric ton. Finally, Mencarelli warned the audience that current Chinese regulations call for animal testing.

“In 10 years, we’ll still be challenged by animal tests,” he predicted.

Yun Shao, Kobo Products, explained that an ingredient is considered new in China when it is used or manufactured in China for the first time. Furthermore, products may not be imported into Mainland China without registration. And while SFDA is tasked with regulating cosmetics, the Administration has been overwhelmed and enforcement activity is low. Going forward, however, Shao expects SFDA activity to rise. He also noted that both the US and EU are pressing China to consider animal testing alternatives. SFDA is soliciting comments on these tests.

China may be complex, but it is vital to the global cosmetics industry as sales for the first 10 months of 2012 rose 16% to $17.3 billion, noted Francine Lamoriello, Personal Care Products Council, who added, only partly tongue in cheek: “Everything you’ve ever heard about China is true and so is the opposite.”

For example, the country’s population is huge, but aging rapidly. Soon, one worker will support two parents and two grandparents.

“Young workers are scarce,” she noted. “Wages will have to go up.”

To head off the problems associated with an older population, the Chinese government is slowly relaxing its one baby rule. At the same time, dissatisfaction among citizens is common in the country, where 274 protests occur every day.

As China labors through these growing pains, Lamoriello said the industry must speak with one voice and positively engage with a broad range of government operators.

When the Sun Shines
Friday’s opening session on sunscreen formulation was moderated by Akshay Talati of Estée Lauder. The keynote award lecture was delivered by Pascal Delrieu of Kobo Products. He noted that while small size particles are critical for efficiency with minimal whitening, some groups insist these “nano” materials are unsafe. The solution, he said is to form a matrix around the nanosized particles to ensure they cannot be delivered through the skin. In his test, ultrafine TiO2 was fully dispersed and entrapped within a polymer matrix. The resulting composite powder had a mean size in the range of 3-9 microns with no particles under 100 nanometers. The process can also be used to treat carbon black, which is widely used in mascara, he noted.

Getting a Read on Free Radicals
UV light can cause long-term damage to skin, but oddly enough, the free radicals caused by UV have a short lifespan, which makes them difficult to study and understand. Paul Staniland of Croda Europe provided details on how electron spin resonance spectroscopy is being used to measure the efficacy of UV protectants. Croda researchers found that sunscreens containing TiO2 with enhanced UVA protection reduced the number of radical-adducts generated in the skin by a much greater extent than sunscreens containing TiO2 with more UVB protection. This indicates that free radicals in the skin are produced by both UVA and UVB light, according to Staniland. An enhanced UVA-TiO2 resulted in a remarkable reduction in the number of free radicals generated in the skin, according to the speaker.

Effective protection is, of course, paramount to any sunscreen formula, but if the aesthetics aren’t right, the product won’t sell, noted Chris Dederen, Croda Europe. To attain the proper aesthetics, Croda researchers adopted Sensory Spectrum Inc.’s Descriptive Analysis method to document sensory properties of emulsions quantitatively. They found that polymers comprised of covalently-linked amphiphilic repeat units (ARUs) are a very effective way of achieving micelle size distribution with a small micelle fraction and therefore, low irritation potential.

Acrylates copolymers can improve the water-resistance properties of sunscreens, said Li Zhang of Dow Chemical. These materials work by preventing re-emulsification of the film and the UV filters, thereby keeping them in place longer. Furthermore, the materials make it possible to achieve desirable sensory feel, according to the speaker.

Hair and Scalp
Hair and scalp treatments were the subject of the annual meeting’s final session, which was moderated by Howard Epstein, EMD Chemicals. Tim Gao of Croda, explained that shine, chroma and diffusion come together to create the total spectrum of light on hair, which can be defined as the Hair Color Vibrance Factor (HCVF). To measure the impact of hair spray on HCVF, Croda employed advanced AFM 3D imaging technology to study changes in hair surface integrity after treatments.
Croda found that the smoother the surface, the better the shine and the higher the HCVF. Furthermore, objective measurements of hair shine and HCVF demonstrated good agreement with subjective evaluations.

COSA chair Martha Tate and SCC president Joseph Dallal.

Another Croda researcher, Alan Barnes, Croda Europe, told the audience “healthy hair is in good condition and has good movement.” But how does one measure movement? Croda created a hair dynamics test that allowed flat, wax bound hair tresses to be moved in a controlled manner while being recorded by a high definition video camera. According to Barnes, the swing height of hair was most affected by damage and reparative treatments. For example, bleaching caused a 50-60% reduction in swing height, but it could be restored with proper treatment.

Hair Color and Growth
Kazim Raza Naqvi, University of York, explained how transition metal ions generate hydroxyl radicals in hair color systems. Copper ions were very active in generating these radicals, while iron ions precipitated, leading to low activity. His team found that an EDDS ligand has a strong affinity for copper and suppressed radical formation in hair color. He concluded that the ligand can be used to control the formation of radical species in a coloring system, thereby reducing radical mediated protein damage to hair fiber.

The hair growth cycle (anagen, catagen and telogen phases) and how to optimize it, was the topic of the meeting’s final presentation, which was delivered by Thomas Mammone of Estée Lauder.

Researchers found that AMP increased DNA synthesis in papilla cells by 1,930% at 0.5mM, while ATP increased DNA synthesis 1,410% at 0.25mM. In another study, a gel formula made with AMP, creatine, carnitine and NADH, improved top eyelash fullness by 27% and the bottom lash by 50% after 16 weeks.